Thursday 7 December 2017

Thursday thoughts education and "value for money"



I listen to students from Canterbury university talk about getting value for money for education. Education cannot be assessed in this way. Contact hours eqyated with amoney value.. makes me wretch. All study is self directed it cannot be measured was an economic transaction. Ideas and study cannot be assessed financially. Each academic, each researcher every philosopher, writer and thinker does not and should not be devalued to the price mechanism. The fault lies in the philosophy of the right. Education is about critical thinking and contributing and about broadening the mind and informing. It's about expansion of awareness and fostering a hunger for knowledge. If education is about conditioning for work then yes it can only be assessed by as narrow ideology that seeks to avoid being exposed. And that is not what education is about..and must never be..

 I listen to an interview with youthful conservatives who say that it is hard "to come out" as a conservative. It's interesting that the right should use a term from gay lib shows how times have changed. The conservatives are on the wrong side of history...even my sanity to say that comment shows how we have returned to a left trajectory in the political paradigm. Conservatism is a false consciousness that has to be seen through. I laughed yesterday when I heard that women of the alt right were complaining about their treatment by alt right men. The issue is that the alt right by definition is patriarchal and powerful..there is no possibility of equality or understanding of gender issues. AND with conservatism let alone the alt right. The essence of the right is to quote JS Mill that 'conservatism is empiricism tempered by prejudice"..i am sorry there is no alternative..and we must all wake up to it

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